PITSBURG – The Franklin Monroe Jets were able to fend off Mississinawa Valley’s mid-game sprint to snag a conference game on Thursday, winning 46-35.

As usual, the Jets fired out of the gates with a six-point streak from Allison Snider, Claire Neiswander and Taylor Robins.

MV’s Mackenzie Dirmeyer made two, but Robbins shot back with seven consecutive points.

“(Taylor Robins) made a lot of clutch shots throughout the game,” Franklin Monroe girls basketball coach Gavin Spitler said.

Hope Neargarder tossed in a bucket, and the quarter ended with the Jets up by nine.

But the next quarter proved disastrous for Franklin Monroe, as Mississinawa Valley scored nearly half of its total game points in the second.

“We literally stopped playing defense,” Spitler said. “Everything they wanted to get do, they got in the second quarter.”

“We got off to a slow start and worked our way back into it,” Mississinawa Valley girls basketball coach Todd Murphy said.

The Blackhawks scored 17 points to FM’s seven, and MV found itself on top going into halftime.

“That just shows you that we’ve come a long way from the beginning of the year, and the girls have gotten a lot stronger,” Murphy said. “This was a good game for us. We played strong here.”

“We got lucky that they didn’t take a little more advantage of it. They scored 17, but they probably could’ve scored more,” Spitler said.

Going into the third, Spitler made sure the Jets team played up their team defense and regained control of the Cross County Conference match-up.

“I told them at halftime, you let them back into the game, so you better come back in this third quarter,” he said.

And the Jets did, by scoring 11 and holding MV to six points in the next eight minutes.

“We struggled a little bit in the third quarter and turned the ball over a little more than we should have,” Murphy said.

Heading into the final quarter, the Jets stepped up their game with a six-point run. The Blackhawks tried rallying but only managed five points in the fourth.

FM kept grabbing steals and knocking in points to end with the night ahead 46-35.

Taylor Robbins delivered big for the Jets, racking up a total of 22 points.

Maddie Murphy had 12 points for the Blackhawks and Hope Neargarder had eight.

“It was a solid night for Maddie and Hope, our two seniors,” Murphy said. “We’ll just keep working on it, and we’ll get better.”